Montgomery officials taking creepy clown threats seriously

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - The creepy clown social media threats have continued, and now they are hitting close to home.

The threatening posts were made under the Facebook name "Bingerman Clownferd." Several of the posts talked about beating up students at different schools in Montgomery. One post listed a middle school for each day of the week as targets and stated high schools would be next week.

Montgomery police and the school system are aware of the posts. Officials say they will prosecute even if this is a prank.

"This isn't a problem just in Montgomery. It's something that's happening all over the state and actually all over the southeast. There have been people who've disguised themselves as clowns and made threats to children and to schools and it's not funny," Tom Salter with MPS said. "We are working with law enforcement, and we're pushing that when they find these people, not if, but when they find them that they'll be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Officials with the City of Montgomery, Montgomery Police Department and Montgomery Public Schools held a news conference Monday evening.

Mayor Todd Strange stressed there doesn't appear to be any credible threats.

Superintendent Margaret Allen says the school system is taking the threats seriously and took measures to ensure student safety Monday like alerting security staff, working with law enforcement and keeping parents information through their website.

Sheriff Derrick Cunningham said these threats aren't funny and warned against any copycats.

"If we catch you doing something like this, we will prosecute you," Cunningham said.

Montgomery isn't the only city in our area dealing with this issue.

A threat aimed at the city of Troy included a video. That video showed two people wearing clown masks. At one point in the video, a knife was shown.

Troy police say they now have control of that Facebook page and have spoken to the two teens behind the video.

In the Troy case, no threats were made towards an actual organization, school or person.

Creepy clown sightings and clown social media threats have popped up across Alabama and other parts of the southeast.

Flomaton, AL schools were put on lock down for several hours last week due to a threat from the "Flomo Klown." A 22-year-old woman was arrested and charged with making a terroristic threat in that case.

Authorities in Mobile County were also investigating threats last week.